Your horse runs over you or crowds you. He bites. Or maybe balks, bucks, or tosses his head. He won't take the bridle, and he rears, runs away and bolts.
If any of these describe your horse, then you're dealing with bad horse behavior. While each of these problems can have their own specific solutions, it turns out that by applying some very general but effective horse training principles, we can go a long way toward eliminating all of these problems.
When it comes to horse behavior, many problems can be reduced to one of two issues with the horse. If a horse is acting badly he is either:
Afraid (acting out of fear)
Dominant (acting in a way that disrespects you)
We can get around both problems by being an effective leader for our horse. If we are a strong and effective yet compassionate leader, our horse will not be afraid because he knows he can trust us. And if we are a strong and effective leader, a dominance-minded horse won't be naughty with us. This can be done with proper ground training.
These days there are a myriad of ground training techniques. But its possible to identify a few key items you should be using on every horse that will help establish leadership. Here are five key methods that produce all around general results regardless of the type or horse you have or his disposition, or what type of "bad horse behavior" he is showing:
Lead your horse properly. When leading a horse on the ground, you're not just walking from place to place-you're using body language to communicate with your horse on multiple levels. By leading him properly, we can show the horse that we are a confident leader to be trusted-and someone that he must follow. A confident leader is one worthy of being followed-this helps build confidence in the horse that is afraid and shows a dominant horse that he is not the leader-you are.
At-Liberty Round-Pen Training. A great way to become a leader for your horse is to utilize at-liberty training in the round pen. By mimicking the behavior of the dominant horse in the herd, we can establish leadership in a way that not only speaks to the horse in a way he naturally understands, but in a way that gets rid of many problems like crowding, balking, being hard to catch, kicking, and biting.
Back Your Horse Up. Yes, backing up is a simple exercise, but it can be made challenging as well as basic. Not only that, its a sure fire way to build up trust with your horse, and to also show leadership by asking him to walk backwards where he can't see.
Flexing. By practicing flexing on the ground, you train your horse to respond lightly to the reins and teach him how to respond to an emergency stop.
Get and Keep the Attention of Your Horse. If you're the trusted leader of your horse-he is going to pay attention to you at all times. Simple exercises can be performed with your horse during groundwork training that make this automatic.
Building a solid horse training foundation with groundwork will allow you to eliminate fear, and prevent a horse from dominating you. by putting in some extra effort now, you can have a sfae and fun riding experience later.
David McMahon is a free lance author who owns 3 horses and writes about horse training issues. For more information please visit Mastering Basic Groundwork (Horse Training)
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_McMahon
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